THE man chosen to lead Scotland's new single police force has said the merger could mean the loss of up to 3000 jobs.

Stephen House, 54, who is the current chief constable of Strathclyde Police, also said being offered the top job is the "pinnacle" of his career.

Speaking at the Scottish Police College in Tulliallan, which will be the interim headquarters for the Police Service of Scotland when it comes into force in April next year, he said there could be "many, many hundreds" of support staff jobs lost as the country's eight forces are merged and agreed with "up to 3,000" as a potential figure.

"It's difficult to be precise at this moment in time, because calculations are still being made and it depends on a lot of different factors," he said.

"I would stress that the plan and the expectation is that much of this will happen through voluntary redundancies and early retirement packages.

"The Government has said, and I think it's quite right, that we're not keen on the idea of compulsory redundancies, so we would be looking to identify jobs where there was some duplication, where we didn't need to do that work any more, and either redeploy those staff into other jobs or see if they wanted to take a voluntary redundancy package or early retirement.

"So, it's something that will be done in a co-operative and compliant way, working with the unions representing the workers."

He will be paid a salary of £208,000 when he takes up the new post this autumn but Mr House said he is "worth it".

He added: "I do believe I'm worth it. Time will tell, but that £208,000 wasn't decided by myself.

"It was decided by a fairly precise procedure of what other people are paid in similar-sized organisations.

"It's probably at par with that level for the size of the organisation."

Mr House has headed Strathclyde Police since 2007 and previously held senior roles with the Metropolitan Police.

He spent the early part of his career at Sussex Police and has served with Northamptonshire, West Yorkshire and Staffordshire forces.

He was appointed deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police in December 2001 and five years later took on the role of assistant commissioner with a responsibility for homicide, gun crime and fraud.

Mr House said local policing will not suffer as a result of the national force and compared it to Strathclyde, which serves more than half of Scotland's population, policing remote areas and islands including Arran and Mull.

"I think there is a popular concern and sensitivity amongst some quarters that coming from a force like Strathclyde, and immediately before that the Metropolitan Police, I'm a big city chief constable who has no concern or care for policing in local communities outside city areas," he said.

"Let me just try and set the record straight - I've worked in six forces, in fact Police Service of Scotland will be my seventh force - three have been relatively small county forces and much of my policing experience is in those.

"I'd also want to remind people that Strathclyde covers a huge territory and includes some extremely rural areas and a large number of island communities as well.

"The flexibility that we deliver currently in Strathclyde speaks well for the ability of the single police service in Scotland to provide a locally tailored and flexible service which meets the needs of the community, but also takes advantage of the benefits of size and the power that will also bring.

"I don't minimise or in any way trivialise those concerns and I hope my actions over the next few years leading the organisation will prove that I will be a chief constable for the whole of Scotland and not just for parts of Scotland."

The Glasgow-born officer said he was looking forward to visiting all eight forces next week to meet people and gather their ideas to take the new force forward.

Vic Emery, who was recently chosen to head the new Scottish Police Authority, the body which will oversee the national service, said: "I am confident that we have someone in Stephen House who shares my principles of nurturing a culture of strong performance, continuous improvement and measuring success.

"Today at Tulliallan, we take the first steps on that shared journey."